How did Québecois French evolve from 17th-century French
Québécois French evolved from the 17th- and 18th-century regional varieties of early modern French, often called Classical French, spoken by French colonists who settled in New France (now Québec). The settlers mainly came from northern and western regions of France, such as Normandy, Picardy, and Brittany, where various regional dialects and langues d’oïl were spoken. These settlers brought with them these dialects, but a dialect clash led to linguistic unification forming a koiné, or common language, which became the basis of Québécois French.
Unlike modern Parisian French, which evolved in France after the 18th century and was influenced by changes driven by the French Revolution and centralizing efforts like the Académie française, Québécois French retained many features of the earlier aristocratic French spoken at the royal court of the 17th century. After France lost its North American colonies to the British in 1763, contact with France was limited, so Québécois French preserved older pronunciations, vocabulary, and expressions that became archaic or changed in France.
Québécois French also absorbed loanwords from First Nations languages to describe local flora, fauna, and places, keeping this distinct from European French. Its vocabulary, accent, and some grammar have evolved over time within the specific social, cultural, and geographic context of Québec but still reflect 17th-century French roots more closely than contemporary French in France.
Thus, Québécois French is a linguistic descendant of 17th-century French that evolved somewhat independently due to geographic isolation, influence from other languages, and historical events such as British conquest and subsequent language policies in Québec. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7